Good thread! I've been at the hospital all day.
Hope it was nothing serious.
What, pray tell, would you have the government do in response to the specific threat of terrorists mixing explosive liquids on airplanes? And I mean specifically in response to the threat. Several alleged terrorists have been arrested, although some remain at-large. The government must respond by implementing security measures to respond to the threat. Would you have the government do nothing? I understand that security, immigration, and several other areas need work, but to argue that liquids should not be banned from carry-on luggage would be tantamount to hiding your head under the sand and ignoring a specific terrorist plan to blow up airplanes.
Not sure if this was directed at my post of not but here goes.
The initial response all around was prudent IMO. It's not a matter of simply banning liquids from carry ons. Liquids can still get on board unless they are going to do a strip search also. Metal detector and x ray machines for carry ons can't find plastic bottles taped under clothing. The current practices are better than doing nothing at all. I support using the full body xray machines, but there aren't enough in use.
Electronics, xray them, swipe them for explosives, check for function, then convert the overhead bins with locks that are locked before pushing back from the gate and leave them locked until safely at the destination gate.
The security measures are certainly irritating. But they are not illegal. You don't have a Constitutional Right to fly with liquids and/or carry-on luggage.
I would certainly rather fly without a carry on, however I'm required to travel with a laptop and choose to fly with a few other nice to have items like a flashlight, an ipod and a gps. I very seldom use any of them in flight, I carry them because of theft. If the airlines would reimburse more than $650 for items they break/lose(steal) I would gladly put all of the above in a suitcase and hope it gets there. But under their current policy of "Yes we know we're incompetant boobs here's your $650 for your $4000 dollars worth of stuff we lost (Our employees stole)." So far this year I've flown 85,000 miles and "lost" 1 cameras, 1 pair of boots and a cheap mp3 player out of my checked luggage on international flights. If airline employees are willing to steal from customers I'm sure they are not above being paid to put "stuff" on an airplane for Osama. By the way one of the arrested in the U.K. was part of airline security at Heathrow.
Before I hear "You would rather trade safety for $4000 in property", No I would rather have both, I see no reason I should have to give up any property other than the price of a ticket to travel. When I buy my ticket if they would just say "We're going to steal whatever we want from your checked luggage." I would change my travel plans.
